Review: One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Blurb:

For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a dark, lushly gothic fantasy about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom—but the monster in her head isn't the only threat lurking.

Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King’s own nephew, Captain of the Destriers…and guilty of high treason.

He and Elspeth have until Solstice to gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.

Review:

A few words before I start this review: I’m kicking myself in the shins for not starting this duology when everyone was first recommending it to me. I feel the FOMO now, even though I am already devouring the second book. Another book from this week that I read in one sitting, could barely put down, and am now downright obsessed with. 

“Be wary. Be clever. Be good.”

Characters

Elspeth Spindle is infected with magic from an all-consuming mist set on the land, Blunder, by the vengeful Spirit of the Wood. But more than being illegally alive, she harbors another dark secret that she has carried since she was nine years old: she is inhabited by a Nightmare. Her family has kept the secrets they know about her hidden, but all is coming to light.

I love Elspeth. She seems quiet and unassuming yet she is anything but. It’s just what has kept her alive and out of the hungry-for-blood sights on King Rowan (who I honestly got a bit of a laugh out of because his first name is QUERCUS. It means oak in Latin, and plant names, especially tree names, are traditional in this world, but come on - could you take a king seriously with that name? Shade – given from me, a humble reader – King Quercus. To say I dislike him is an understatement) and the ever-prying hands of the Physicians - the ones set out to find and confirm infected people, sending them to their inevitable deaths. When she is overtaken by highwaymen one night in the woods, her life goes from being quiet and out-of-sight to thrust into a rebellious scheme to gather all the Cards of Providence (I will go into this deeper next.)

Her magic skill of being able to see who carries Cards entwines her with a band of royals hellbent on their mission to collect the cards and rid Blunder of the infectious mist. From this she collides with Ravyn Yew, the King’s Captain of the Destriers (essentially the policing force in Blunder) and in a deliciously forced-proximity, faking-a-courting situation, they come together bound by their own dark secrets. 

Even though this is all from the perspective of Elspeth, the other characters don’t just highlight the story, they are a beaming light. Elm is a favorite of mine – ever-broody and suspicious of Elspeth from the start. The Nightmare - well what can I say: he’s terrible but has his own agenda in keeping Elspeth safe and secure, guiding her along the way. 

Even the villains like the king and his reprehensible son Hauth make this story so well-rounded. 

Atmosphere/Plot

“There once was a girl, clever and good, who tarried in shadow in the depths of the wood. There also was a King - a shepherd by his crooks, who reigned over magic and wrote the old books. The two were together, so the two were the same: The girl, the King, and the monster they became.” 

I need more books like this in my life. Taking inspiration from tarot cards, the Cards of Providence are not only structured similarly, but imbue the holder with a magic that is actually legal in Blunder, as they were gifts to the people given by the Spirit of the Wood. That plan kind of backfired on the Spirit, but she has been exacting her revenge with the mist and the infection that will eventually eat the victim from the inside out. But wielding the power of a card also comes at a great cost – use it for too long, and you will start to feel the effects unique to each card. But there are only so many, and a prophecy describing how to rid the mist from the land is just missing one thing: the ever-elusive and lost-to-time Two Alders card. No one has seen it in five-hundred years and the only way to break the spell is to collect one of each kind of card and bring them together in a swirling potion of ingredients: cards, blood, and sacrifice. I will make the case that this book is more plot-driven, and the world-building is wonderful. Familiar fantasy settings but with a unique and deliciously dark twist on classic tropes. 

Writing Style

Gillig has a way with words and a special way of weaving her story. So many quotable passages. First-person throughout, the plot and characters with the illustrious descriptions provided by Gillig provide nothing but entertainment. I will caution: this has some graphic fight scenes, a lot of blood and ripping of flesh, as well as some explicit love scenes not meant for a younger audience. This is the one fault I place on this story: that it will turn some readers away who prefer closed-door scenes. While it’s not nearly a habanero on the Scoville scale of spiciness, I would caution those who aren’t into that. On the other hand, I whole-heartedly believe they are scenes that could be skipped over for those who wish to do that kind of reading. I place no shame or guilt on any kind of reader, but will always caution this when it arises. 

Intrigue

“Magic smells of salt.”

Did I mention I couldn’t put this book down? From page one I knew I needed to make it through to the last without a pause: I just NEEDED to know how this would end, and while it is a duology and doesn’t round off in this book, it was so indulgent in unique and turn-worthy pages. 

Excitement

Again, kicking myself for not reading this earlier because it is right up my alley. It’s a gothic fantasy I think any adult reader will enjoy and filled with rich and unique magic. Recommending this book is turning into my job now, because I want everyone to read it.